


Never Work With A Pirate

by Mister_Fox



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24183106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mister_Fox/pseuds/Mister_Fox
Summary: Ahsoka has one last lead on the location of a Hutt blackmailing innocent pilots to smuggle spice.Ventress has an informant who says he knows where her bounty target is.(Hondo Ohnaka just wants to make a profit.)
Relationships: Asajj Ventress & Ashoka Tano
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16
Collections: Villain of My Own Story Exchange 2020





	Never Work With A Pirate

“Well, well, I haven’t expected to see you again.”

Ahsoka hears a familiar voice from somewhere up above her, and looks up to see the face of Asajj Ventress peering out of the gloom, the woman perched on a stack of crates. She tenses, instinctively.

“So you didn’t go to prison after being framed after all, little Jedi? I didn’t bother to… stick around, after that little friend of yours got the jump on me.”

“No, but I did leave the order. Sorry about you getting attacked. But why are you here?”

“I am meeting a contact for bounty hunting information in exchange for some help. My target is proving… rather elusive.”

Is that a bad feeling in her stomach, or was the canteen food as suspect as it smelled?

“Ah, Lady Tano, Lady Ventress! I am happy to see that you are acquainted with each other. I trust we will all work well splendidly!” Hondo enters the hangar bay from the opposite end.

That’s _definitely_ a bad feeling.

“You said you have information about that spice smuggler, Hondo.” Ahsoka hopes she managed to look intimidating. “You said you could give it to me.”

“Ah, well, Hondo meant that Hondo knows where the information _is_! That’s why _I_ need your help for the mission, and why _you_ will want to help me with it!” He smiles winningly at them.

“What kind of _mission_ could possibly need the help of both an ex-Jedi and an ex-Sith, that your own pirate crew can’t pull off?”

* * *

“Was this another part of the plan you didn’t think to mention to us before, Hondo? And stealing the main tactical droid of a Separatist base? Who the kark came up with that plan and went ‘oh that’s fine’?” Asajj snarls, and barely remembers that she has a lightsaber in only one hand, and can’t block blasts the way she usually does, her left arm busy hauling the droid. She should have turned around and left the moment Ohnaka refused to explain exactly what was being stolen, and what _exactly_ that building was.

“Jedi, cover me!”

Tano leaps into action, deflecting bolts with Asajj’s own borrowed lightsaber, since she apparently doesn’t own any now. She should remember to tell the girl to go to Jedha for some replacements.

“Hondo Ohnaka has no doubts about the skills of your fine personnage!” Ohnaka still sounds _cheerful_ , the kriffing pirate. “But he may, ah, have accidentally mislaid the getaway blurrgs.”

Tano groans, audible even over blaster fire.

“Hondo, you better pay us double if you don’t want Ventress to take your head off!”

What a lovely suggestion. She hadn’t even had time to think of that yet.

* * *

“Well, while we may have run into some unexpected difficulties, I assure you, we will all get out of this just fine!” Hondo laughs nervously, eyeing the lightsaber on Ventress’ hip. Clearly, he took Ahsoka’s remark way more seriously, earlier. He tries to step sideways, putting Ahsoka between him and Ventress.

Ahsoka narrows her eyes, and steps away, leaving the path clear. Hondo’s eyes flicker down to her own - borrowed from Ventress - lightsaber.

Not that she’d stab him or let Ventress stab him, but… a whole Separatist base? Seriously?

Even Anakin hadn’t come up with plans _this_ stupid.

“How about- Hondo can be very generous, you know, how about I give you each five percent of the money I’ll get out of this droid? Eh? Oh, I see you two are very stressed out- how about ten percent each, once we all get off this planet, on top of the information and pay I promised earlier??”

Said droid whirs and beeps in apparent distress, and tries to move as far away from them all as possible- which isn’t very far, because they’re in a very small cave indeed.

“How about you make that fifteen percent, and refund us for _my_ blurrgs?” Ventress hisses.

“Ah, you like to haggle-” Hondo glances at the lightsaber again. “But of course, of course, that is a most reasonable price, considering the troubles I did not mention could occur. Hazard pay, yes?”

“Assuming neither the droids not the _sandstorm raging outside_ manage to kill us, yes.”

“You’re looking for that Hutt spice smuggler whose name rhymes with a swear word- what was it, kark?” Asajj frowns at Tano. “What for?”

“He’s blackmailing some people into smuggling spice; somebody asked me to turn him in to the authorities for a bounty.”

“I have a bounty on him as well. Would the authorities accept half a Hutt?”

Tano looks almost scandalised.

For a war veteran, she is so naive.

Then she looks thoughtful.

“What does your employer plan to do? If he’s out of the way…”

Well, the girl has definitely become more pragmatic.

Not that Ventress needs a partner in bounty hunting, but some future ventures, perhaps…

Those are thoughts for later, if they all do manage to make it off this Force-forsaken planet with the droid, all of them in one piece.

First, they need to figure how to get out of this cave and past the droids, now that the storm is almost cleared.

Hopefully, Ohnaka’s been doing some _thinking_.

* * *

“You want us to be the distraction, while you run off with the droid, snipe one of the droids off a speeder, and then pick us up?” Ahsoka raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. “How do you know you won’t just leave us?”

“You wound me! I am an _honourable_ man!”

And Anakin is good at making plans. Sure. Ahsoka looks at Ventress, who looks thoughtful.

“The little Jedi should be the one to do it. I trust her to not abandon us.”

* * *

“This…. doesn’t look like a landspeeder.”

“Well, they only had tanks with them. I had to improvise!”

* * *

"Well, that was an... unmitigated disaster. We didn't even get _paid_." Ahsoka sighs. "At least I know where to find the Hutt now. Just need to figure out how to pay for the journey."

Ventress eyes his strangely.

"It might save us both time and energy if work... together to reach our goal. But I refuse to go hunt a Hutt until you get yourself your own lightsabers. Have you been to Jedha before?"


End file.
